This past Sunday was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Churcch. Our church had a time of prayer devoted to our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. What did your church do? I would love to hear your stories. While we are on the topic I’d also like to leave you with a story of persecuted in Japan some 400 years ago.
According to the Joshua Project, the Japanese are the world’s second largest unreached people group. Many people do not realize that Christianity flourished in Japan prior to the 1600s but persecution all but wiped out the visible church. The June 2007 issue of the Voice of the Martyrs Magazine told the story of one Japanese church leader during that time of persecution named Paulo Uchibori. Here is his story as told in that magazine.
A wave of harsh persecution took place in Japan in the early 1600s, during which many Christians were martyred.
On February 20, 1627, church leader Paulo Uchibori, his wife and three children were arrested for harboring missionaries. On that day, Paulo and 37 other Christians were beaten, paraded naked through town and imprisoned in Shimabara Castle.
The following day, the Christians were tortured. The government wanted to avoid making martyrs, but used the cruelest methods to force Christians to deny their faith. One of the soldiers teased Paulo as he held a knife, saying “How many of your children’s fingers should we take?” Paulo replied, “It is all up to you.”
The soldiers cut off all of the children’s fingers except their thumbs and little fingers, saying Christians should have fewer fingers that an animal. Paulo’s two oldest children, Antonio and Barutabazaru offered their fingers to the soldiers, without crying or showing pain. The last child was Paulo’s youngest, Ignatius, age five. He also showed no pain as his fingers were but off. He raised his bleeding hands to the sky, offering them to God. Those who were watching were surprised by what they saw and were deeply moved by the children’s bravery.
The soldier then bound that hands and feet of 16 people including Paulo’s children and threw them repeatedly in the ice-cold water of Shimabara Bay. Still the Christians would not renounce their faith. Antonio’s last words before he disappeared into the ocean were, “Father, we should thank God for giving us such a great blessing.”
After his children drowned, Paulo’s face was branded with the three Japanese characters of the word, “Christian.” He was thrown out on the streets with a sign on his kimono reading, “Punished for being a Christian. It is forbidden to help this man or give him shelter.”
A week after the martyrdom of his children, Paulo was sent up Mt. Unzen with 15 other Christians to experience “torture in the hells of the Unzen volcano.” Paulo was hung upside down and lowered into the boiling sulfur waters many times. He prayed out loud each time, realizing he was part of the Body of Christ, “The Eucharist should be hallowed.” Finally, his body was thrown into the boiling spring.
The faith of Paulo and his children encourage us today. We know that they, along with many other unnamed Japanese Christians, were welcomed into Jesus’ presence and now wear robes of white.
Pray that Christians around the world who are being persecuted will have the strength to endure the suffering. Pray that God will use the persecution to sovereignly expand His kingdom around the globe. Pray that believers will be a witness to the grace and love of Christ in the face of those persecuting them. Remember to not only pray for our persecuted brethren on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church but pray for them every day. If you are a Christian, we are all part of the body of Christ and if they hurt, we should be hurting with them. “Remember those is prison as though in prison with them.”
